Shopify CEO Plays Video Games on Day Off as Deal Rumors Swirl

(Bloomberg) -- Shopify CEO Tobias Lutke isn't letting musings by CNBC's Jim Cramer distract him from playing video games on his day off from work.

Lutke on Wednesday was seen playing Activision Blizzard Inc.'s “Starcraft II” on the Twitch video game streaming platform. And earlier, CNBC's Cramer said that at least two companies in Silicon Valley with market capitalization's above $70 billion are interested in acquiring the Canadian e-commerce company. Cramer said he didn't expect the company would entertain any offers because it wants to remain independent.

Investors may be at peace with the CEO spending some time away from the company after Shopify shares gained 159% year-to-date, outperforming the S&P/Toronto Stock Exchange Composite Index's 18% gain. Today alone the stock climbed as much as 7.5% and is up ~21-fold since its May 2015 initial public offering.

He wasn't completely disconnected, however. Lutke responded to questions from fellow gamers as well as some Shopify employees on the Twitch broadcast. About 2,000 people have viewed the Twitch streaming feed today.

Lutke didn't respond to Bloomberg News request for comment on the Twitch platform, while other Shopify representatives didn't immediately respond to inquiries.

--With assistance from Kamaron Leach and Sebastian Tong.

To contact the reporter on this story: Joshua Fineman in New York at jfineman@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Catherine Larkin at clarkin4@bloomberg.net, Scott Schnipper, Brad Olesen

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